Australian researchers have found that tire wear and tear is a major contributor to urban waterway pollution, producing particulate matter that includes microplastics. But, they also found that there are effective ways of reducing this type of pollution, which can affect the health of the…
I don’t advocate completely getting rid of cars, but they aren’t always a good way to get around.
Why should large portions of the US be all but forced to drive a car? It requires registration, licensing, insurance, and sometimes inspections or emissions testing?
Bicycles, pre-ww2 style small towns, mixed used zoning, and rail would all reduce car usage.
For example, allow building small general stores in residential areas like mine so people don’t have to drive to the store for every little thing. Lots of minor improvements add up.
I’d be happy to answer any questions about reducing car usage.
I live in a major metropolitan suburb. County population over 700k. It is over a mile to the front of my neighborhood, which is not even off of a major road. Are we as densely built as the city? No. Is there much room to put anything else? No. Rail? Unfortunately, hell no. People are so quick to tunnel vision in on their situation in their town and think its applicable to the whole world. Im not walking over a mile to potentially get to a bus stop. What about the disabled? They just mobility scootering miles to get to what is hopefully a handicap accessible bus? Inclement weather? There’s so many things the rose tinted glasses don’t see.
TLDR: Reducing car dependency helps drivers too by reducing traffic and getting bad drivers off the road.
A lot of people, like me, live in the US in similar environment so we are well aware of the issues. Super car dependent design like that is pretty hard to undo. I don’t blame people for buying houses in these areas because it is often the best location and best financial decision. When I bought my house, it was the best location for reducing the amount of driving. Non SFH in more dense parts that aren’t rentals are pretty much non-existent.
So, steps taken to reduce car usage help people that have to drive due to reduced traffic and hopefully getting people off the road that shouldn’t be driving.
The best you might be able to do in the near future is maybe lobby to rezone a property that goes up for sale to allow a small general store or other micro businesses that won’t draw in much outside traffic.
It won’t be a fast or easy process, but car dependency at the scale it is in the US is not sustainable.